Awards

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in the New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

Review:

"Lahiri's touch in these nine tales is delicate, but her observations remain damningly accurate, and her bittersweet stories are unhampered by nostalgia." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"[Lahiri] announces herself as a wonderfully distinctive new voice....She is a writer of uncommon elegance and poise...a precocious debut." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Review:

Review:

"One of Lahiri's gifts is the ability to use different eyes and voices. Readers who enjoy these stories should also appreciate the work of Bharati Mukherjee and G. S. Sharat Chandra." Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist

Review:

Review:

"[A]side from her eloquence, there are two things...that make this a stunning literary debut. One is her spectactular ability to portray characters who are unassuming....The other is her talent for making stories featuring these same characters remarkably suspenseful." New York Newsday

Review:

"[Lahiri] breathes unpredictable life into the page, and the reader finishes each story...wishing he could spend a whole novel with its characters. There is nothing accidental about her success; her plots are as elegantly constructed as a fine proof in mathematics." Caleb Crain, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Jhumpa Lahiri is the winner of numerous awards, including the 2000 Pulizer Prize, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, and The New Yorker's best Debut of the Year Award. Her first novel, The Namesake, will be released in September, 2003.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating based on 11 comments:

Rachel Coker, October 14, 2010 (view all comments by Rachel Coker)
What a wonderful read! Great insights into human nature and especially the experience of Indian immigrants in America. The last story, "The Third and Final Continent," made me cry. It also filled me with hope for the many talented graduate students from India with whom I work every day. This selection is part of my plan to get caught up on winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it did not disappoint!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)

Shannon Kirkpatrick, January 20, 2010 (view all comments by Shannon Kirkpatrick)
This may be a slim volume of short stories, but packed into each one is a full-scale human drama. I found these stories extremely satisfying; some were gripping and poignant, others a bit wry and funny, but all of them were both full of feeling and extremely relatable. Thank you to the friend who gave this to me on my birthday, since this is one of the best books I have read - period.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(5 of 10 readers found this comment helpful)

"Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Lahiri's touch in these nine tales is delicate, but her observations remain damningly accurate, and her bittersweet stories are unhampered by nostalgia."

"Review"
by Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times,
"[Lahiri] announces herself as a wonderfully distinctive new voice....She is a writer of uncommon elegance and poise...a precocious debut."

"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews,
"[P]olished and resonant....Moving and authoritative pictures of culture shock and displaced identity."

"Review"
by Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist,
"One of Lahiri's gifts is the ability to use different eyes and voices. Readers who enjoy these stories should also appreciate the work of Bharati Mukherjee and G. S. Sharat Chandra."

"Review"
by New York Newsday,
"[A]side from her eloquence, there are two things...that make this a stunning literary debut. One is her spectactular ability to portray characters who are unassuming....The other is her talent for making stories featuring these same characters remarkably suspenseful."

"Review"
by Caleb Crain, The New York Times Book Review,
"[Lahiri] breathes unpredictable life into the page, and the reader finishes each story...wishing he could spend a whole novel with its characters. There is nothing accidental about her success; her plots are as elegantly constructed as a fine proof in mathematics."

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and gifts — here at Powells.com.